leading the way trying to get legislation through parliament on these issues, but it has been blocked by angela merkel's conservatives, by and large. a lot of people in conservative ranks want to defend what they view as a more traditional view of the family. these are divisive issues. there's a lot of passion around this. it is very emotional. the greens are saying they're going to make all these issues an element of their election manifesto, so that should be interesting. there is a lot of passion in germany. i have to say also that is not quite as much as it was recently in france where tens of thousands of people took to the streets in demonstrations for and against same-sex marriage. we saw similar scenes in the british parliament as well. >> the outlook is brightening for europe's biggest economy. investor sentiment in germany has surged to a three-year high. >> the index is one of the most closely watched investor confidence surveys. it pulls germany's top 300 financial analysts and is being taken as another sign that the german economy could rebound quickly from a sharp slowdown at the